Ditto Ditto (17 page)

“I don’t think we can teleport into a place we’ve never been,” Ditto says as she races alongside me.  “She’s going to get us caught–then we’ll get in trouble.”

“You might not have noticed, but we already are,” I grit out as we come to a stop in front of the massive Hall building.  The one in Kansas City has a statue of Lady Justice in front of it–the one here has a remake of the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima–it’s a statue that belongs to the Marine Corps Memorial.  How do I know that?  My dad used to bring me here to see it.  He would look at me and place his hand on my head, grinning proudly.  “We might wear capes, honey, but we know who the real heroes are,” he would say every time.

I feel a tear trickle over my cheek at the memory, and wipe it away quickly.  Repeat’s already made it to the back of the building while I was distracted.  Ditto grabs my arm and drags me around the building, practically running into Repeat.  Repeat gives us a dirty look and hauls us both behind a pile of trash and trash cans, hiding. 

I half hope that nobody shows up, I think as I crouch and try not to breathe.  (This is REAL trash in front of us–and it stinks really bad.  That’s why I’m only half hoping–if they come we can move on, if they don’t, we might be standing here way too long.)  Unfortunately (or fortunately) a black Hummer pulls up to the wall and it opens wide.

We don’t race in, we just look in, staring at the area inside.   There’s a desk, I notice, with no one sitting at it.  It’s perfect.  The Hummer drives in and the wall closes, but it doesn’t matter.  I blink and we’re now crouched behind the desk.  Wow... I have GOT to figure out how that works, otherwise I’ll be popping up in strange places with no clue how we got there!

Repeat’s the first to catch on.  She looks around, seeing a door half opened.  There’s a sign that says, “Control Station” on the door.  Before I can react, she disappears and reappears next to it, peeking around the door.

‘She’s totally going to get caught,’ Ditto thinks.  I feel myself nodding, watching the doppelganger sneak into the room.  I’m not breathing.  At any moment the alarms are going to go off–

I hear a grunt inside the room and a loud thump.  Wait, what?  Repeat sticks her head out the door and waves us in urgently.  I look at Ditto, Ditto looks at me.

We run into the room.

It’s not easy dating a girl like Emily, Trent admits as he races through the town, heading for the highway.  It isn’t just because she’s a duplicator–that in itself is a handful of trouble, but there are other problems.  Mostly an urge to get jealous, he admits to himself, racing around an old lady in a Cadillac.  Emily has the type of personality that draws people to her.  They want to protect her because she’s little and scrappy, but that’s HIS job–she’s his partner!

Another problem, he thinks as he jumps over a Volkswagon Beetle, is her ability to get into trouble.  It’s like she’s a literal magnet for trouble!   People are honking at him, and his superior hearing is driving him insane, so he jumps off of the highway, racing alongside it.  This is taking too much time, he thinks.  With every second that goes by Emily is alone, unprotected, and right where Skystep can grab her.

Faster, he thinks as he kicks up the speed.  He needs to go faster.  Even a second of not having protection is a second she could be hurt in–maybe even–he shoves that thought away.  That’s not going to happen.

But he has to go faster, he thinks, kicking up the speed even further.  There are so many things to avoid though.  Trees, poles–he grits his teeth as he almost runs into a streetlight, and jumps, going over it.

Faster.  The scenery is blurring past him so fast that it looks like streams of light.  So his biggest problems with his girlfriend are her funny, attractive personality and natural propensity for trouble.  He slows as he realizes it, his mind echoing with the thought for a few seconds.  Oh boo-freaking-hoo, he snarls at himself, not even paying attention to running anymore.  Such a sad sack situation, having a cute girlfriend that has a lot of friends--

He hears people cheering, screaming at the top of their lungs, and cars honking wildly.  He slows down, twisting his body so he can–wait, what?

The entire highway as slowed to a stop and people are hanging out of their windows, cameras and phones aimed at him.  He looks at them blankly until one of the younger kids waves his arms and bellows, “KID!! YOU’RE FLYING!!”

He looks down, staring blankly at the ground several feet below him.  He’s actually flying.  He almost falls out of the air with his shock, but catches himself.  “Thanks,” he calls to the kid in the car, waving slightly before turning and flying.

Emily’s safety is still more important than the thing he’s been waiting YEARS for, he realizes.

It doesn’t keep a slight grin from appearing on his face.  (But the bug that hits him in the mouth just might.)

***

I look around the small room, expecting to see something other than what’s in front of me.  The walls are covered with screens, each showing a different part of the Hall, the computer chair is still lazily rolling across the floor, finally stopping a few feet away from me.  Repeat is glued to the screens, standing over a keyboard as she searches the Hall’s files.  There’s a large norm man collapsed on the ground right behind her.

The first thing I do is cross over to him, crouching down and checking his pulse.  Thankfully she just knocked him out.  ‘Close the door,’ Repeat snaps silently, not even looking at us.  Ditto closes the door as silently as possible, locking it.  ‘We’ve got to work quickly.  Someone’s going to notice me getting into the files at any moment.’

I see her fingers racing over the keyboard.  I never realized I could type that quickly, I think a bit blankly.  Okay, that’s not the thing I should be focusing on.  What I need to focus on is the fact that I–me and my Doppelgangers–are doing something so stupid that it’ll probably get us all tossed into Cape Cells for the rest of our lives.

Dear God, if you’re listening, I am SO not the one to blame for this–Repeat is!  Sure, she’s PART of me, but not the biggest part!  Or even the part I like best, right?  I definitely prefer Ditto to Repeat–but anyway, if you can help us get out of this without being killed or whatever, I swear I’ll not fall asleep in church... next time.  I’ll drink a lot of coffee or something, even if it does stunt my growth. 

Repeat takes a second to shoot me a dirty look over her shoulder as she prints out a sheet.  ‘Got it,’ she says, grabbing the printout and turning to us.  The sound of an alarm going off makes all three of us jerk. ‘We have to GO, Em,’ she says to me, heading forward and placing a hand on my shoulder.  Ditto copies her, although I can hear her mental complaints, and we look at each other.  Okay.  Teleport.  Teleporting is–not happening.  I start to panic, especially when the doorknob of the small room rattles.  Someone’s trying to get in.  Once they get the key they’ll get in and catch us and–

‘Picnic table!’ Ditto says.  It echoes through my mind as the sound of a key scrapes on the knob–

We land on the picnic table again.  “Got it,” Repeat says in satisfaction, squirming out from under us and holding up her piece of paper.  “Let’s go.”

“And what are we going to do?” Ditto demands.  “You might not remember, but our foster mom–THE Firefly–hit her with enough power to kill off most capes and she still recovered in a day or two!  We have no chance–“

“We don’t know that until we try,” Repeat snarls, her hand tightening on the paper.  “Fine.  I’ll do it on my own.”

“Let her get killed, she’ll just come back later,” Ditto says, waving it off.

I give her a dirty look and race off, knowing she’ll follow me even if she doesn’t want to.  I can feel her glaring at me for being an idiot the entire trip across town.  I don’t care, because frankly I agree.  She’s got a very good point.  The only thing is, I want to hear from Skystep directly what happened to my parents.  I just don’t know if she’ll tell me.

We slow down as we get to a more derelict part of town.  The buildings are abandoned and plants are growing up their sides and in their parking lots.  There are no signs of norms, other than graffiti and broken beer bottles.  I find myself slowing down and glancing around on a regular basis, wondering if we’re being watched.  I half expect a tumbleweed to drift past.

I see Repeat ahead of us, pulling to a stop and looking at her piece of paper.  She turns, heading for one of the dilapidated stores.  It’s an ugly four story square building with faded remains of letters across the front.  The windows are boarded up, all except a few of them on the top floor.  Those look like they’ve been busted out–and had curtains hung.  It’s a bit strange, I admit, especially when I notice underwear hanging on a hook in the window, air drying.

There’s music coming from inside, Johnny Cash.  Who knew Skystep listened to Johnny Cash, I wonder as Repeat drags us behind an overgrown bush.  ‘So what’s the plan?’ I hear her ask us.

‘You’re the one that decided you were going to do it on your own!’ Ditto snaps.  ‘My plan is to leave her here with her drying undies and ancient music and make Trent take us on a date!  He’s supposed to be building a pool, remember?  I want to go swimming!’

‘She’s got a point, we didn’t get to go swimming because of Skystep,’ I admit, glancing up at the fluttering underwear.  ‘Besides, you’re the one that’s trying to be so big and bad in the group, not me.’

‘I AM you!’ she snaps, glaring at me darkly.

‘I vote we kick her out,’ Ditto says, holding up a hand, ‘any seconds?’

‘I can’t kick a part of me out, Ditto,’ I drawl, rolling my eyes at her, ‘no matter how much it might save me in headaches.’

‘She’s just going to try and get Trent time when this is over, you know–that’s one too many of us!’ Ditto complains.                                                 

Yes, I am fighting over my own boyfriend with myself.  That’s not the important part.  ‘I...’ I start out slowly, ‘I want to hear directly from her if she did it–and why,’ I tell the others, looking at the ground.  To my surprise, they both hug me.  Ditto I’m not surprised by, but Repeat is holding on just as tightly.

‘We all do,’ she whispers through the mind link, ‘and fighting over Trent can wait until we’ve dealt with this problem.’

‘In other words she totally plans on it,’ Ditto complains.

I’m about to tell them both that as the original I get first dibs, when the sound of a car catches my ear. I grab them both, hauling them down and out of sight as this square, ancient looking car makes its way down the street.  It’s one of those cars you see in those cheesy seventies movies, with sharp angles and low slung doors.  You can imagine “Low Rider” playing in the background if it helps you out.  I know I am.

We go silent, all wondering what the car’s doing.  Maybe it’s a gang member here to hide some bodies or something.  No one would look in a place like this, but Skystep might disagree with the smell.  The sight of the car pulling to a stop in front of her building has me holding my breath.  Definitely not a dead body drop-off.

The door squeaks open, hanging open as a cane comes out first.  We watch in silence as an old man pulls himself out.  He’s well dressed, with shiny black dress shoes and a classic cut shirt.  His gray white hair is stylishly trimmed, as is his short beard.  He looks around, and I don’t dare move in case I catch those sharp looking eyes.  Finally he heads for the building, his cane tapping casually on the concrete.

“Skystep!” he calls up to one of the open windows.  “I’ve come to offer you a deal!”

The music pulls to a scratchy stop and Skystep steps to the window, looking down at him. 

“Who are you?” she demands, not looking impressed.  Does she get propositioned by old guys a lot?  I glare at Repeat as she lets out a splutter, covering her mouth with her hand before the laughter fully escapes her.  Thankfully neither of them seem to have heard her.

“They call me Mr. Will,” the old man says, not bothering to yell even though she’s several stories above him.  “I’m just an old man with a few very good connections.  I’d like to offer my assistance.”

“For what?” she demands.  “Honestly, I can’t think of anything you can offer me.”

“I saw what happened in Missouri,” he says, leaning with both hands layered on the head of his cane.  “What happened to you wasn’t right, now was it?  I’m here to offer you some revenge.”

“I don’t deal with crazy norms,” Skystep says after a long moment of staring at him incredulously.  She steps out of view, but I bet she’s still listening.

“Do I strike you as crazy?” he asks casually.  “Do you think a regular norm would know about what Firefly did to you?  Or how about the little showdown with the Liberty family?  What is it that you were so intent on getting up there, anyway?  Was it the girl?”

Skystep steps into view again.  “Who are you and what do you want?” she demands bluntly.

“I’ve already introduced myself.  I’m here to help you get what you want.”

She hesitates, then steps onto the window ledge, jumping out and landing in front of him.  “You speak big for a norm.”

“It’s not speaking big when you can back it up,” he says confidently.  “Now, this girl, she’s what you want, right?”

“You really think I’m going to let a complete stranger get close to Melody’s daughter?” she asks him, her expression going hard.  “I don’t like how casually you speak about her.”

“Oh?  And Melody is?”

“My best friend,” Skystep declares.  I feel Repeat go still before she disappears, only to reappear in front of Skystep.

“YOU LIAR!” she bellows, tackling the older woman to the ground.

“I see, so we’re going to have to do this the quick and ugly way, are we?” I hear the old man say.  He brings up his cane, twisting the handle off and flipping it in his hand.  He shoves the needle on the end into both of them, moving so quickly that I wouldn’t have seen it had I been normal.  Skystep goes limp and I mentally shout at Repeat to follow suit.  Whatever he had in that needle was some nasty crap.  If she doesn’t react as he expects, bad things could happen–he might realize she’s just a doppelganger.

The old man pulls out a phone, tapping on the screen and speaking into it.  “Bring the van–keep the super sedatives at hand, I don’t believe this will last long on her.”  I hear the van coming, racing down the street and pulling to a screeching halt beside the old man.  Two large men in nurse uniforms jump out of the back and head for Repeat and Skystep.  A third man swings the back doors of the van open and jumps out, pulling out a gurney.

“What about the kid, boss?” one of the nurses asks as he stands over Repeat.

“Bring her, she obviously has powers,” the old man says.  The nurse nods and I watch as he picks up Repeat, heading for the van while the other two snap Skystep into the gurney.  I can feel how stressed out Repeat is right now, playing dead.  Suddenly this situation’s gotten serious–more serious.

I get the feeling we’ll never find out what happened to my parents if we let this old man take Skystep.

***

“Stop right there.”  Normally that sentence wouldn’t mean a thing, Nico thinks as he pulls to a stop.  Unfortunately that’s not the case when it’s Voltdrain saying them.  The short Hispanic man floats in front of him, wearing full uniform.  “I’m afraid I was told to stop you at our border, Señor Nico.  Century cannot have you running around without permission–“

Voltdrain stops as Kid Liberty flies right past them, and then turns and looks back at Nico, as if it never happened.  “He cannot have you running around without permission, I am afraid.  You will have to go through the proper procedures.”